The Israel-Hamas war has been the deadliest war for journalists and media workers since the CPJ started gathering data in 1992 on press related killings. In 2023 more than three-quarters of all journalists and media workers killed worldwide died in the Israel-Hamas war.

I have chosen these three wars as comparison, as these have been widely reported on in Western media. The Iraq and Syrian war in particular, as they a decade ago have been reported to be the deadliest for journalists. I could have chosen press killings in other parts of the world, it wouldn’t have changed the point made in this comparison.

I have also highlighted the killings of journalists and media workers in the first seven months of each war, as media attention tends to decrease over time and it might let you wonder if the numbers were equally high in the first stretch of the wars and decreased over a long period as the wars continued. As you can see: they were not.

Whether I’m comparing the numbers to the first period or the total length of each war: the number of killings and especially in such a short period of time in the Israel-Hamas war is staggering.

[NRC, 2024]

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